Chapter 7: Rivers and Mountains (26)

"Brother Fu, you didn't smoke for a long time after I married you, is it because of this poisoning?" Seeing that Mo Di's manuscript had the first poisoning and injury, Zhou Shiming asked with great concern. What happened twenty years ago, she still feels very frightened, the Japanese poison gas, in the eyes of the Chinese, is an extremely terrifying thing, there is nowhere to hide, in the years of the Anti-Japanese War, countless Chinese died under the Japanese poison gas bombs. knew that Mo Di was still alive and well after that poisoning, but she was still worried about Mo Di's poisoning, because she loved the little man in front of her deeply.

Mo Di nodded and smiled at his wife.

Although the winter in Hong Kong is not as cold as in other parts of the mainland, the occasional cold wave will still bring some coolness, and whenever the sun sets, there is a trace of cold soak in the air. Mrs. Mo Mrs. Zhou wore a cheongsam with cotton and blue and white tie-dyed cloth, which was very ancient, matching her plump figure, and exuding the charm of a mature woman.

I don't know if I have been in Hong Kong for nearly ten years, this long time has smoothed out the mood of the invincible, the ups and downs of the past few decades, from the huge waves in the chest to thin ripples, and finally the heart stopped the water, and there is no longer the slightest wave. For several months, Mo Di calmed down, and every time after dinner, he would come to the front of the steps, facing the green in front of the door, with a new table lamp, recalling the events of decades ago little by little, and forming words little by little, unconsciously, it was already a thick stack.

These days, reading Mo Invincible's manuscript has become the greatest pleasure in Mrs. Zhou's life, every morning Mo Di went to school to teach, until the afternoon did not return home, she was alone at home, pushed off the neighborhood's card game, and also resigned from the afternoon tea that must go every day, the manuscript of Mo Enemy the night before was carefully copied, although the neat Xiao Kai is not everyone's handwriting, but it is unusually neat, between the lines, revealing Mrs. Zhou's reverence and aftertaste of those beacon years.

After a simple dinner, the husband and wife sat in front of the steps, still the small table, still two bamboo chairs, the sky is still very bright, no need to palm the lamp, but in the corner of the small table, a delicate table lamp has been prepared in place, once the sky is nearly dark, only need to gently pull the small string under the table lamp, the light of the table lamp can illuminate the small table. Mrs. Zhou is still sitting on the side, a small charcoal stove with a hot pig iron kettle, a small table, brewing high mountain tea from Taiwan, although not as authentic as the tea in Anhui, but it is better than nothing. Mo Die sighed many times while drinking tea, in this life, I don't know if I can drink authentic Anhui black tea again.

The red sleeves are reading books at night, and the red charcoal stove is boiling tea, Mo Di has said to his wife countless times that he is really willing to write like this, until both of them have white hair and temples.

"I saw a new toy at school today, which was invented by the Japanese, called hula hoop, so thick and so big." Mo Di compared it with his hand and said, "Put this ring on your waist, and turn the circle in through the twisting of your waist, so that it will not fall to the ground, and we have entered a hundred of them in our school, and we want to form a hula hoop competition team." When there is a sale in Hong Kong, we will also buy one and come back, go around the yard, twist it, and exercise it as a body. ”

"Will the things invented by the Japanese come to Hong Kong?" Mrs. Zhou asked.

"I don't know, our school's hula hoop is imported from the United States." Mo Di said: "I have not understood the situation in Japan for many years, seeing this hula hoop that has been popular in Japan and the United States in the past two years, and I thought that the Japanese were living a very good life, and I found some newspapers with Japanese news to see the people, only to know that the Japanese have had a very poor life in recent years, not only worse than our Hong Kong, but I am afraid that it is worse than the mainland by three points, we often see the news of the mainland, their * is very successful, the country's economy is developing rapidly, the steel is surpassing Britain to catch up with the United States, and the grain yield per mu is 10,000 catties. I'm afraid that I will soon return to the reign of Wenjing and the year of Zhenguan. ”

"Are the Japanese having a good time?" Mrs. Zhou asked.

"It's not good, they are suffering the retribution of creating a war, and the Americans have made Japan a mess." Mo Di said: "After the war, the US ambassador to Japan was not an ordinary ambassador, he was called the Japanese governor-general, and the Japanese governor-general was called MacArthur, he was in Japan, he was the supreme existence, he wanted to see the emperor, and he only needed one sentence, and the emperor had to obediently run to his office." In Japan, Americans can rape Japanese women at will, they can take Japanese belongings at will, and what the Japanese wanted to do in China but did not do, now Americans have done it in Japan. I read a lot of information, and I was really relieved, but I was a little annoyed that it was not us Chinese who brought this kind of retribution to the Japanese, but Americans who were far away. ”

"The Japanese are not having a good time!" Mrs. Zhou said: "We are from here, in the twenty-seventh year of the Republic of China, not long after you were poisoned, the Japanese came to Lu'an, and our family retreated from Lu'an to Lihuang. ”

"Yes! At that time, the Japanese three-way army would attack Wuhan, first hitting Jiangbei, then Jiangnan, and finally marching from Lu'an Huoshan to Dabie Mountain. Our Gui army was guarding the Jiangbei Road at that time, but we didn't expect that we would try our best to block the Sixth Division in Jiangbei, and the Madang Fortress in the south of the Yangtze River was attacked by the Japanese. The Japanese base camp did not expect that the attack on Jiangnan would be smoother and that it would be easy to occupy the mouth of Jiujiang Lake, so the battle plan was temporarily revised, and Jiangbei and Jiangnan advanced at the same time. If the Madang Fortress in the south of the Yangtze River can withstand the attack of the Japanese army, we in Jiangbei are fully sure that the Japanese attack will be completely blocked in the area of Susong Wangjiang. When Mo Di said this, he looked pityful.

Mrs. Zhou smiled and said, "I don't know how to fight, I only know that in Susong, you won first and then lost, and finally retreated to Hubei." ”

Mrs. Zhou's words made Mo Di immersed in distant memories again, he took out a cigarette on the coffee table, stood up, pressed the gasoline lighter a few times, and finally pressed out a little flame, lit the cigarette, took a puff, spit it out far away, and put the silver iron lighter in his hand back on the coffee table. Walk to the front of the steps, the winter yard planted a nest of bamboo shoots, the growth is booming, a few days can harvest a stubble, sell this stubble, if you can get back a sum of money, you should really invite Tang Ruru and other old friends to come to the house to sit down, drink some wine, reminiscing about the years.

After capturing Anqing, the Botian detachment in Jiangnan continued to advance west along the Yangtze River on naval vessels, arriving at Madang, a fortress of Jiangfang, in late June. Designed by German military advisers, the Nationalist army operated it for several months, at great expense, and was exceptionally strong, and it was a strong fortress against the Japanese navy, and Chiang Kai-shek had high hopes that it would be able to stop the Japanese offensive for at least a month.

Because the Hatada detachment suffered heavy losses in the Battle of Anqing and was unable to attack independently, the burden of the first attack fell on the 3rd Fleet of the Navy of Kazukawa Koshiro. The Japanese navy tried to open the passage from the river with great vigour, but there were too many *, shipwrecks and artificial reefs in the fortress to get close. The Japanese sent minesweepers to clear the road, but under the artillery fire of the defenders, the minesweepers could not work.

The river could not be passed, so it could only be attacked by detour by land.

The defenders near Madang Fortress were Li Yunheng's 16th Army, and two weeks before the Japanese attack, Li Yunheng, the current enemy, did not think about defense, and actually set up a two-week "Anti-Japanese Military and Political University". On 24 June, Li Yunheng also lavishly held a grand graduation ceremony, inviting officers at all levels of the 16 th Army and local gentry to attend.

In the early morning of June 24, the Japanese army successfully landed in the eastern part of the 16th Army's defensive area, and then successfully captured Xiangshan, Xiangkou and other positions. Fortunately, the 2nd Marine Brigade defending the core position of Madang Fortress Changshan belonged to a different system from Li Yunheng's 16th Army, and did not send anyone to attend the graduation ceremony.

Bao Changyi's side was in a dark fight, and Li Yunheng's graduation ceremony was very lively, and after the ceremony, everyone had a dinner and drank a mess.

The Sixteenth Army could not count on it, so Bao Changyi hurriedly sent a report to Wuhan, and the report was immediately sent to Chiang Kai-shek's case. Chiang Kai-shek was taken aback and transferred the situation to Bai Chongxi. Bai Chongxi immediately ordered the 167th Division stationed in Pengze, and asked the division commander Xue Weiying to immediately lead his troops to reinforce Changshan.

Li Yunheng also knew that the Japanese army was coming, and he also made a phone call to the 167th Division. Xue Weiying received two different orders at once, Bai Chongxi ordered him to rush from the road, and Li Yunheng told him to take the path. Faced with two different orders, Xue Weiying thought for a long time, and finally chose to listen to Li Yunheng's path out of contempt for the old miscellaneous deputy chief Bai.

Bao Changyi's 2nd Brigade held out for two days, suffered more than half of the casualties, ran out of guns and bullets, and had to withdraw from the position, and the Japanese occupied the Changshan position.

Xue Weiying immediately launched a counterattack, but to no avail, and even the Madang Fort was taken by the Japanese army.

When Chiang Kai-shek saw that Madang Fortress had been lost in less than a week, he was so angry that he called Chen Cheng, the commander of the Ninth Theater, over and scolded him. Chen Cheng immediately ordered the 16th Army and the 49th Army to counterattack Madang at any cost, and the Japanese army relied on the Madang fortifications to resist stubbornly, and the national army's offensive was repeatedly frustrated and suffered heavy casualties, Chen Cheng had to order to stop the attack and retreat to Pengze.

On the Hebei side, Ma Weixin's suggestion was highly appreciated and recognized by the 21 st Group Army, and the blocking battle in the area of the Susong Pavilion turned into an active offensive and defensive battle, and on 28 June, a major battle broke out between the two sides in the pavilion, and the Seventh Army was indeed a steel army, and the Japanese army went back and forth for several rounds, until it was dark, and the two sides held their positions and did not distinguish between victory and defeat. On June 29, the two sides fought again, the battle was in full swing, the 138th Division of the 48th Army fought out from behind the Japanese army, the Japanese army was defeated, lost its armor, beheaded countless people, fled in embarrassment, and retreated to Taihu Lake.

The general situation in the north of the Yangtze River has turned from crisis to safety, and the battle line between China and Japan has basically stabilized on the line of the Taihu Lake and the Wangjiang River.